We all love getting new credit cards and offers. Thats why we read these blogs and pursue this hobby. But sometimes we may see an offer that looks a little too good to be true. This offer may only be on one or two blogs, but not others. As your parents probably taught you when you were young, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is!
A month ago, I received personalized offer from American Express for a 75,000 point bonus on the American Express Business Gold card, upon completing a $10,000 minimum spending requirement in a 3-month period after approval. (My offer was further broken down to 50,000 points for the first $5,000 spent in 3 months, and another 25,000 points for the next $5,000 spent in the same time period, but I would definitely go for the Gold – pun intended!) This offer came directly from American Express with an official offer code.
A week or two later, I saw a post on a travel blog that mentioned a 75,000 point bonus on this same card, but with only a total of $5,000 minimum spending requirement in 3 months to get the full bonus. Wow! That seemed almost too good to be true! The online application link was down (clue #1), but I decided to call American Express to investigate further, because if this actually was real, it was an offer that I would love to get!
The American Express representative told me, in part:
No, thats not a real offer, it is a Spam/Phishing scheme. Consider yourself lucky that the application site was down, because if you applied, you would have had all of your information stolen, and you would not get the credit card. I don’t think we’ve ever offered that many points for that low of a spending requirement on that card.
The representative also told me that hundreds of people have called in trying to apply for that offer due to the lack of ability to apply online.
So there you have it. According to American Express, this offer was NOT real. So the lesson going forward is this: if only one or two blogs are posting about an offer, and it seems too good to be true, it probably is. And if nothing else, definitely do some due diligence before applying and putting all of your personal information out there.
Have any of you had similar experiences applying for credit card offers which you later found to be non-existent? Or did anyone have any luck in actually getting this 75,000 point offer for only the $5,000 minimum spend?
Michael Prodanovich is a contributor to Point Me to the Plane, and author of The Ultimate Guide to Free Travel.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
10 comments
But, there is an offer with those terms out there now, directly on the AMEX website:
https://www262.americanexpress.com/business-card-application/member/business-gold-charge-card/login/44446-104-1-CAPOBGRC
Yes, thats the same page I saw when I initially clicked on it. When I try to log in to apply, it says the systems are down – which was the indicator of it being false.
Which means you have not been targeted for the offer. The offer is legit.
I got a 50K for $1K spend link from flyertalk. It’s real and I was approved yesterday.
Was that for the business card? I had a similar offer (50k points for 1k spend) for the personal Premier Rewards Gold. I am definitely interested to hear if you got the same bonus for the business Gold!
The offer was real if you were targeted. You only could not apply online if your account was not targeted. I applied for that offer a few weeks ago and have since received my card and have been putting spend on it.
This offer is actually legit. My mother received an email from AMEX for this offer. HUCA!
HUCA indeed, that is always good advice!
Hubby got offer via snail mail for 100k for $3k spend in 3 months on platinum AX card AND a separate invitation for 50K for $1k spend in 3 months on rewards gold. Applied and approved for both! He has not had an AX card in years as I’ve been getting the offers and applying. These just arrived out of the blue! Got really lucky!!!
My wife and sister both received targeted offers for 75,000 points for $5,000 spend in 3 months from American Express for the Business Gold card. We completed both offers and received the 75,000 points for each offer. This is a legitimate offer.
Since I haven’t been targeted for this offer, I could only receive the 75,000 for a $10,000 spend.